How to get your work life in order and boost your productivity in 2018 [5 tips]

Do you regularly find your workday spiralling out of control?

No doubt you start your day with the best of intentions, but soon find yourself distracted, fighting fires, focusing on low-priority tasks, or simply procrastinating.

The tendency to become distracted is innate, so you can forgive yourself a little. This comes from the days when humans had to be able to respond quickly to predators that threatened us. In other words, we’re programmed to be constantly alert and constantly aware of every noise or movement in our immediate surroundings.

Our brains have not quite let go of this ancient survival mechanism. This is why it is so difficult to focus on one task at a time, ignore distractions, and get more done. Does that mean focused work and improved productivity are fruitless endeavours? Not at all.

Here are five expert tips for breaking free of your day-to-day distractions in 2018.

#1. Reassess how you manage your day

It’s essential that you devote a small amount of time each day to planning. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Peter Bergman says that ‘Managing our time needs to become a ritual too. Not simply a list or a vague sense of our priorities… It needs to be an ongoing process we follow no matter what to keep us focused on our priorities throughout the day’.

Bergman reckons that this can be achieved in just 18 minutes a day:

• 5 minutes to plan: Before you turn your computer on, write out the most important tasks you must achieve, prioritise them, and then add blocks of time to your calendar to work on them.
• 1 minute every hour to refocus: Set an alarm once an hour to pause, review and ask yourself if you’ve spent the last hour working productively. Review your calendar and recommit.
• 5 minutes to review: Shut off your computer and review your notes. Did you get as much as you hoped done? What went well? What didn’t? How can you be more productive tomorrow?

#2. Take better notes

How many times have you had to email your boss, or call a client to double check something they said in a meeting or to confirm a fact? Not only is this a drain on your productivity, but it’s potentially harming your relationships.

The answer is to take better and more frequent notes. That’s because taking detailed notes, which you can revisit later, makes you more likely to remember crucial information. Researchers at Keele University reviewed all of the available studies on note taking and found that three quarters concluded that the best performers created notes that they could refer to later on.

While there are no rules when it comes to taking notes, the evidence suggests that the more OCD you are, the better. The Journal of Reading compared different note taking methods and found that the more rigorously structured notes were (think subsections and hierarchical numbered lists) were the highest quality and most accurate. The very best added a column on the right hand side of every page to list key items to follow up on later.

#3. Start opting out of meetings

Is white space something you rarely see on your calendar? If so, it may be time to start thinking about declining meeting invites. Why? Because if you’re in back to back meetings all day, you’re not getting focused work done.

Liane Davey, author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done, says that declining meetings without appearing rude requires a process.

• First, assess the value of the meeting: Is the meeting about something valuable and important? Does it have a clear agenda and purpose? Are the necessary decision-makers invited and attending?
• Second, confirm that you’re the correct attendee: Are the issues under discussion within your purview? Do you have expertise to contribute? Are you under- or over-qualified for the level of decisions being taken?
• Third, is this a priority? Even if the conditions in steps one and two are met, is this meeting a priority for you right now? Is it central to your role and current business demands? Could it wait until another time?

#4. Make time in your week for professional development

These days the pace of technological change is lightning fast. This means that if you’re not paying attention to your own professional development you’re not only falling behind, but you’re almost certainly missing out on all sorts of new tools and processes that could be making your professional life more efficient.

The answer is to carve out time in your workweek and devote it to staying up to date and learning new skills. The advent of online learning (sometimes called MOOCs—Massive Open Online Courses) means there’s no excuse for resting on your laurels.

From LinkedIn’s Lynda, to the University-led Coursera, and the ‘teach yourself by doing’ website CodeAcademy, there are hundreds of options for self-directed personal advancement out there. Find something that matches up with your chosen career path and dedicate at least an hour a week to it. You might even get a CV boost out of it.

Read more: 5 courses that could boost your marketing job prospects

#5. Stop letting email control your life

Email is one of the major contributors to employees’ perceptions of feeling stressed and overwhelmed. It's not a surprise given how email has taken over the workplace. A McKinsey study reckons that employees spend close to a third of their day responding to, reading, or composing emails.

The problem is, answering emails is more often about feeling like you’re busy rather than anything close to actual productivity. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Paul Argenti, argues that emails tend to dominate day-to-day work because they seem urgent. However, this is usually to the detriment of the most important, focus-requiring tasks that matter most.

The solution is to develop an email strategy and reset colleagues expectations:

• Start by turning off email notifications and instead checking in at regular intervals (e.g. once an hour).
• Next, use rules to divert the most important messages (e.g. those from your boss, or emails marked important) to a specific folder you can check first.
• Lastly, lead the change in terms of how you write your own emails: Get to the point fast, clearly state what decisions need to be taken or which questions need to be answered and only send it to the people who actually need to read it.

Control your email inbox rather than letting it control you!

****

3Search is an award-winning UK recruitment consultancy, specialising in marketing, digital and tech positions. Whether you’re seeking new talent or looking for your next career move, we can help. Learn more at 3Search.co.uk